NOTES:
Since the sixties, Minimalism continues to be a liberating experience allowing
artists to break away from a Europe totally immersed in the Darmstadtian
avant-garde. This avant-garde differs from the American one in that its
origin stems from a philosophical foundation. Thoreau used to say: "Music,
as I see it, is ecological... it IS ecology". Music is thus an extension
of life. It is no longer a closed system, but rather an opening enriched
with freedom for the individual. From a European point of view, this conception
is equivocal. However, this idea can be linked to another basic phenomenon,
one of extra-musical origin, namely the oriental philosophies, in which
Sol LeWitt, the sculptor, envisages a more mystical than rational perspective
in which "illogical judgements lead to new experience"; it is
a salutary experience with variety in the repeated pattern, thus granting
a specific treatment of space, duration and sound, as duration and rhythm
for Glass, as well as for La Monte Young, Terry Riley or Steve Reich, are
the main parameters of sound, at the very heart of compositional thought.
Moreover, all these musicians are of the same generation — the first
one, Young, was born in 1929 and the last one, Glass, in 1937. Glass studied
composition with William Bergsma and Vincent Persichetti, and then studied
with Darius Milhaud and Nadia Boulanger.

If Young offers a continuous sound of a constant pitch, Riley a repetitive
principle subject to the improviser's fancy, and Reich a process of gradual
progression, Glass, however, insists on the use of an additive process of
development founded on the progression of a repeated figure. He thus proposes
a variable within a simple arithmetic gradation: rhythmically in unison and
in parallel, contrary or similar motion. Glass's music thus produces sound
differences in time, using the same elements in constantly differentiated
sequences.

Creating these differences within a context of repetitions is not only the
heart of Minimalism, but it is also one of the basic principles of Far-Eastern
musics. For instance, tabla music by Ravi Shankar and Allah Rakha that Glass
knew quite well, having made a study-trip to India, then to Northern Africa
and Central Asia.

When all is said and done, it is freedom in sounds that is essential. Perception
is thus altered, inasmuch as, just as the Variations of Incomplete Open Cubes
or Serial Project No I by Sol LeWitt modify the relationship between man
and object, minimalist music transforms time and duration, replacing external
passive listening by internal active listening. The matter of attention is
the very interior of the sound. And Glass's minimalist music gives full reign
to this experience. Glass enjoys saying that his music is like "the
motor on a space machine".

His book Solo Piano (1991) is made up of three pieces, Metamorphosis, Mad
Rush and Wichita Vortex Sutra. Metamorphosis consists of five parts. One
introduces a simple melody in the upper register accompanied by a ground
bass based on alternating thirds which remain constant throughout the cycle
of five movements, as well as Mad Rush and Wichita Vortex Sutra. Two uses
the same writing but this time ornate with upper register arpeggios. Three,
in D minor, makes use of off-beats and Four of off-beats with arpeggios,
whereas Five takes up the original theme.

Mad Rush and Wichita Vortex Sutra manifest more development. While Mad Rush
takes up the theme of Metamorphosis both, at the beginning and at the end,
it is built polyrhythmically using, amongst others, a three-for-two counter
rhythm. Wichita Vortex Sutra, the finale, uses off-beats and arpeggios similarly
to Four.

Opening for Piano (1982) is stylistically like Metamorphosis, with alternating
thirds in the left hand and the three-for-two counter rhythm.

The Olympian — Lighting of the Torch is the most solemn piece, written
for special circumstances: the opening of the Olympic Games in Los Angeles
of 1984. This composition is hymn-like while remaining faithful to the composer's
style.

Philip Glass's music for piano is a true reflection of this "metamorphosis" in
receptivity, as shown by the titles: Metamorphosis consisting of five movements,
the majestic equivalent of the mandala. The music sketches out a cosmic diagram
with the Earth, the Centre and Number Five, surrounded by the four elements;
a spirit composed of an uncontrived melodv, a whirlwind, a vortex with in
the middle a zone of quietness, prolonged by the tireless and intuitive words
of the sutrâ. Philip Glass does not make use of the instant diluted
in time, but rather evokes the cyclic instant, an onslaught, Rush, and an
opening, Opening, of a multiple instant and an eternal present.